switch_root (8) Linux Manual Page
switch_root – switch to another filesystem as the root of the mount tree
Synopsis
switch_root [-hV]
switch_root newroot init [arg…]
Description
switch_root moves already mounted /proc, /dev, /sys and /run to newroot and makes newroot the new root filesystem and starts init process.
WARNING: switch_root removes recursively all files and directories on the current root filesystem.
Options
-h, –help
- Display help text and exit.
-V, –version
- Display version information and exit.
Exit Status
switch_root returns 0 on success and 1 on failure.
Notes
switch_root will fail to function if newroot is not the root of a mount. If you want to switch root into a directory that does not meet this requirement then you can first use a bind-mounting trick to turn any directory into a mount point:
-
mount --bind $DIR $DIR
Authors
See Also
chroot(2), init(8), mkinitrd(8), mount(8)
Reporting Bugs
For bug reports, use the issue tracker at <https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues>.
Availability
The switch_root command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.